To the Editor: I was fascinated by Lorser Feitelson’s
painting Life Begins on the cover of the September
1, 2004, issue of JAMA.1 What
is shown in the upper right panel is part of the deep-sky object known as
the Veil Nebula in the constellation Cygnus. Dr Southgate refers to this image
as suggesting “ . . . anything from an exploding
star to a swimming sperm.”1 This description
is supremely felicitous, as the Veil Nebula is, in fact, the tattered remnants
of a supernova—an exploding star.